Katherine Seeber stabbed to death in NYC

Katherine Seeber, the former Wilton woman released from prison last July after serving 12 years for her role in the strangulation death of her 91-year-old step-great-grandmother, was stabbed to death Tuesday in Queens by her boyfriend, according to New York City police.

Seeber, 32, was stabbed repeatedly by Pedro Sanchez, 38, at Seeber’s home on 55th Street in Queens, said Detective Martin Tinspeechley. Sanchez was arrested Wednesday on Astoria Boulevard and charged with second-degree murder, Tinspeechley said, the same charge Seeber pleaded guilty to in 2001 for her role in the death of Ruth Witter in Saratoga County.

New York City police could not say what led to the fatal stabbing. The New York Daily News reported Thursday that Sanchez confronted Seeber about her seeing another man and then stabbed her in the torso and face.

Seeber and her then-boyfriend Jeffrey Hampshire were charged with Witter’s death in 2000. Seeber, then 19, was sentenced to 20 years in prison after her plea in 2001. Witter’s frozen body was found at Saratoga National Historical Park. The teenaged couple allegedly robbed Witter during a partying binge.

In April 2012, Seeber was granted a new trial. The Appellate Division of the state Supreme Court affirmed a decision by a county judge that Seeber was entitled to be tried again because State Police forensic scientist Garry Veeder mishandled fiber analysis in the case.

Seeber unexpectedly pleaded guilty in May 2012 to manslaughter and burglary under the rarely used Alford Plea, which allows a defendant to maintain her innocence but admit that prosecutors likely could have proven criminal charges at trial. Seeber was sentenced to 14½ years in prison. Combined with the time she already served beginning in 2000, she was released a few months after her plea.